Getting in touch with my inner German

Dateline: Lufthansa/SAS flights "home" from Berlin via Copenhagen to Chicago to as close as Culver Academy, Indiana, 9 November 2005

Germany is like Disney World for people from Wisconsin, possibly the most German state in our country. Their entire cuisine revolves around drinking beer and eating meet, and diversity is how many ways they can serve potato.

They had me at bratwurst.

My time in "Bare-Lynn" (accent on the first syllable) was awfully cool.

Got to the Berlin Hilton around 9am. Some time online and then off to a fascinating lunch with a German general and two American flags.

Then the serious treat: a special tour of the city, with a young German soldier as my personal guide, armed with a van and a driver.

We hit Checkpoint Charlie, check out various places where The Wall (Mauer) once stood (marked throughout the city by a line of two stones, not unlike the Freedom Trail in Boston, strangely enough), then to the famous East German TV Tower (the "tooth pick"), 12th tallest structure in the world (and yes, we went up), then the amazing Holocaust Memorial site (including the great underground museum and research facility), then the Brandenburg Gate, then the Riechstag (we went up on the roof and inside the amazing glass dome on top), then the winged victory statue (didn't go up that), and then to the famous KaDeWe department store ("store of the west"), where I score Stieffs galore and some beautiful porcelein. Started at 2pm and back in my hotel room by 6:30.

Give me the VIP tour every time.

Last night was fabulous reception/party for all these NATO officers and defense officials (this was a concept development and experimentation conference, which is just about perfect for me) in the Aquarium of the Berlin Zoo (really gorgeous collection) and both the booze and the buffet were to die for.

This morning I breakfast with a couple of American flags (the same two from the previous lunch) and then I address the assembled crowd of . . . maybe . . . 4-500 officers and officials in a nice big hotel conference room. Great sound, great stage (I wear clip-on), great screens, crappy sound, and a very receptive and attentive audience. I am good, get a bit tired on the Q&A, and then have to suffer some zealot from the Office of Force Transformation (no less!) who lectures me on how I misrepresent Art Cebrowski's depiction of Network-Centric Operations.

No, no, I must admit that NCO doesn't answer all the mail, and that will definitely make me a turncoat to the hardcore believers. But to get lectured on my fealty to Art is a bit much. Then again, I love disappointing the "believers" of all stripes.

Do a quick media turn with three reporters after that, then pack up and driven to Tegel Airport. Quick prop plane to Copenhagen's beautiful, wood-floored airport (my third time in the last year, to my amazement), and then a long flight to Chicago.

I resist SAS's offer to surf in flight because I'd rather watch "Wedding Crashers" (hilarious like nobody's business and another great turn from Rachel McAdams) and then "Cinderella Man" (you fight back the tears throughout; what a history lesson).

Coolest part of the flight? The nose and under cameras during take-off and landing. You can independently call up these live feeds on your own media station (if you're not gaming, mind you).

Landing at Ohare, I jump into a car that takes me to Culver Academy. Tomorrow a conference of Indiana high school students debate the meaning of "The Pentagon's New Map."

I will miss the bratwurst and sauerkraut, though.

Ah well, Lambeau awaits once more this year.

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